German military upgrades

THE GERMAN military has signed a $9 billion deal with a consortium run by Siemens AG and IBM to modernise and run its communication network.

The ten year deal, codenamed "Herkules", is part of a deal to modernise the administrative information technology system and of communication networks for the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr.

According to Associated Press, this will mean looking after more than 140,000 work stations, 7,000 servers, 300,000 telephones and 15,000 mobile phones.

Under the deal, an outfit with the cryptic name BWI Informationstechnik GmbH will be formed with Siemens Business Services and Biggish Blue's German unit owning 51 per cent of the company. The rest will be owned by the German government.

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